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In an effort to make its style of alternative mobile and online payments more accessible, Dwolla launched several new features.

The mobile-payment provider Spindle has entered an agreement with the point of sale technology distributor Integrated Payments to offer its mobile commerce system to Integrated Payments' clients.

The processor Planet Payment Inc. has begun offering its iPay payment gateway to customers of the e-commerce platform provider Magento.

Adyen is launching a portable card reader that accepts both mag-stripe and EMV chip-card payments — the latter a feature that’s still rare in the U.S. even at hard-wired point of sale terminals.

Fashion and finance have a lot of overlap. Celebrity fashionistas have a growing influence on new payment products, and in turn many payment products are using trendy colors and designs to attract users.

Wex Inc., partnering with CashStar, now allows its retailers in Australia and New Zealand to offer customized eGift cards. This move is part of an ongoing strategy on the Wex's part to diversify its offerings and its audience.

With each new mobile-payment function developers create for smartphones, a correlating new security risk arises. The riskiest aspect for merchants, issuers and consumers remains the initial phase — when consumers enroll for a product, says ValidSoft Ltd.

SCVNGR-created LevelUp announced today that it has 500,000 users, which it says is validation of its unconventional approach to point of sale payments.

Online spending rose 17 percent on the Monday after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest days of the year for Internet retailers, as tablets and smartphones let customers shop anytime and anywhere. EBay mobile sales volume more than doubled on Cyber Monday, compared with the previous year, and PayPal payment volume nearly tripled.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council's participating organizations voted that third-party security assurance and best practices will be the two key areas for the PCI special interest groups to study in 2013.

The tentative approval of Visa and MasterCard’s proposed $7.25 billion settlement of a merchant fee price-fixing case will be challenged in a federal appeals court, according to a notice filed by objecting plaintiffs in Brooklyn, New York.

WikiLeaks lost more than $50 million in potential donations after Visa Europe, MasterCard and American Express blocked payments to the anti-secrecy group, according to its founder Julian Assange.

The vast majority of small merchants are still storing unencrypted card data and most don't even know it, according to statistics compiled by a security vendor.

Rich Rezek, director of global product management for Retail Decisions, talked with PaymentsSource about the complex world that data security has become in the ongoing conflict with organized crime and petty fraudsters.

Visa is launching a new data security system, called the Visa Consumer Authentication Service, for issuers to use for online transactions.

At the heart of many mobile wallets is a system for offering discounts, so these wallets seemed a natural fit for Black Friday shopping. Did they live up to their potential?

American Express announced separate initiatives with Fox and NBCUniversal to provide $35 statement credits to Amex card holders who sync their cards to their Facebook accounts and make purchases on e-commerce sites tied to the networks’ programming.

First Data and Fexco Merchant Services, an Irish-based transaction processor, have expanded First Data's GlobalChoice dynamic currency conversion into Canada.

Just in time for the holiday shopping frenzy, two startups have rolled out mobile apps designed to help consumers choose which credit card to use at checkout.

The National Advertising Division, a 10-person shop that's based in New York, investigates allegations that companies are engaging in deceptive marketing, often after a competitor lodges a complaint. Just last week, the organization released its ruling in a big-money dispute between JPMorgan Chase and Capital One Financial.